Hurry Up and Wait!
"I said to myself, 'The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.’" -- Lamentations 3:24
I had to go to the DMV last week to renew the church's trailer tag. Non-profits can't do it online, so I had to make the trip to Pelham to do it in person. They have put in a new system since the last time I was there, and now you take a number and sit in a waiting room and wait for your number to pop up on a screen and an automated voice to call you to take your turn. I think that was intended to cut down on frustrations for those who had to wait standing in line, but really waiting is waiting. As it turned out, the wait was so long that I didn't have time, and I had to leave. I went to the DMV office in Columbiana a few days later, and my number got called out pretty quickly.
Whether it be standing in line, sitting in traffic, or killing time thumbing through magazines in the "waiting room" of a doctor's office, waiting is not one of our favorite activities. Or, perhaps for you the testing of your patience is more long-term, as you wait for a job, an answer, or God's provision for your family. In our microwaveable world, no one likes to wait for anything.
Why is it that we find waiting so very hard? Why is it that we get so frustrated when things don't go our way, on our schedule? Why is it that though we know from experience that waiting is such a normal part of our lives, we still think that somehow we should be immune to it?
The reasons are obvious. We live in a highly stressed, fast-paced society that simply does not have time to wait. There is little time for reflection, few moments of silence and solitude, and very little encouragement to "stop and smell the coffee." Waiting, we're told, wastes our most valuable resource, our time.
And then there's people. They frustrate us, they let us down, they make us wait. Someone has said that life wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for people. But then again, without people we would miss out on many wonderful opportunities to grow our character.
I heard once, and have repeated many times, that sometimes God uses people as "heavenly sandpaper" to help rub off our rough edges and cultivate into our lives the Christ-like spiritual fruit of patience. But that doesn't mean it's easy. That's why I like the King James translation of "long-suffering" of the more contemporary term "patience" in the New Testament, because it best describes what it is often like when I have to wait. Suffering long.
Richard Hendrix said it this way: "Second only to suffering, waiting may be the greatest teacher and trainer in godliness, maturity and genuine spirituality most of us ever encounter." I might also add that I think that ultimately, waiting is the primary means by which God teaches us how to practice genuine faith.
Which means that from the experiences of waiting many of us are facing these days, God must really be at work growing our faith in Him! My prayer is that the Holy Spirit will continue to produce the spiritual "produce" of patience in each of us this week as we walk with Him.
I am praying for you, and I look forward to seeing you Sunday.
--Pastor Ken
